According to Adrian Gombart (OSU College of Science) blueberries and red grapes have compounds – resveratrol in the grapes and pterostilbene in the blueberries – called stilbenoids. This stuff, they say, pops out from all the hundreds of compounds they studied for its ability to boost the immune system. It works in tandem with Vitamin D (don’t forget to take some this winter) to “increase CAMP gene expression”. The study is published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

Mister ScienceAintSoBadRating = 3 because this is so, so preliminary and hasn’t been demonstrated in humans.

Why even write this article?

Here’s the thing.

This is the “Age Of Science”. There’s an awful lot of research – a good thing. But you have to keep your head screwed on when you read about an exciting piece of biochemistry in the lab. There’s a long way to go for those observations to get connected to our lives. This particular report is more interesting for the way it fits with other things we’ve been reading about resveratrol and pterostilbene. There’s quite a bit. And a lot of it is exciting.